OTAN News
Are Micro-credentials the Future of Teacher Professional Development?
Are you planning on completing any professional development training this summer, and if so, will you get a shiny new certificate, micro-credential, or digital badge at the end?
In the effort to provide effective professional development to teachers, some see micro-credentials as the future of teacher training. Micro-credentials are:
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Competency-Based – The teacher has to demonstrate competency or skill mastery at the end of studying the content or skills training.
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On-demand – The training is available when the teacher would like to do it, rather than it being scheduled for the teacher.
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Personalized – The training is tailored to the professional interests of the teacher and encourages the teacher to reflect on, document, and train in the context of their classroom situation.
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Sharable – The teacher would be able to share their achievements through digital badges or similar markers in their online accounts.
Rather than aiming for the middle and offering professional development that may only be relevant and inspiring for some teachers and staff, teachers could be presented with different micro-credential programs and asked to choose the ones that will help the most professionally. Alternatively, if teachers expressed an interest in a specific professional topic and could be awarded a micro-credential at the end of a training that addressed said topic, a school could be intentional in selecting a training that matched these parameters.
Micro-credentials have been around for a few years, but the organization and promotion of them has gotten better recently. Digital Promise is an organization that partners with a number of issuing agencies to create a clearinghouse for many educational micro-credential trainings. Visit its Educator Micro-credentials website and especially its micro-credential ecosystem to learn more about their offerings and better understand how micro-credentials work.
If you are doing a training or taking a course to further your professional development this summer, see if you can earn a micro-credential to share your hard work and learning achievements with the world.
Article: Rethink How Teachers Advance their Careers with Micro-credentials from Digital Promise
Article: Micro-credential Guidance from National Education Association
Article: Micro-credentials for Teachers: What Three Early Adopter States Have Learned So Far from American Institutes for Research
Website: Educator Micro-credentials